Universal Music Group has completed the process of assembling the
record industry's| largest music conglomerate by finally closing
their deal to buy Def Jam Records.
Def Jam had been holding out, demanding the hefty sum of $100
million for the remaining forty percent of the company they didn't
already own, which is a great deal higher than the $33 million
Polygram (now owned by UMG) paid for the original sixty percent in
1993.
Russell "Rush" Simmons is expected to stay on as Def Jam's
chairman, with his CEO, Lyor Cohen, running Universal's urban music
dept. As a show of just how important an acquisition this is to
UMG, it's been decided that Universal's recently merged
Island-Mercury group will now be known as the Island-Def Jam group.
